Today new travel video. I spent a few days in Italy last week and my first stop was Pisa.
My first goal was Keith Haring's Tuttomondo. A mural by the American artist created in 1989 on the wall of the church of San Antonio Abate and located ten minutes from the Central Station. A street art masterpiece with a super interesting story. In fact, Haring met an Italian student in New York at the end of the 1980s who invited him to spend a period in Pisa. Here he falls in love with the food and the atmosphere and thanks to an agreement with the municipality he paints this large wall of the convent. It takes him 4 days, thanks to the help of students and a paint company to paint the work 10 meters high by 18 meters wide. He decides to call it TuttoMondo. The message works because it is simple and direct: the representation of a complex and intricate world but at peace.
Moving from there on foot to Piazza dei Miracoli is very simple. And above all, it is an excellent opportunity to visit the historic center, obviously passing through Corso Italia, the main street of the city, and the Arno.
The next stop on my tour was the Church of San Michele in Borgo, which dates back to 1100 and the facade from 1200-1300 is an example of Pisan Romanesque. Continuing the walk in the center I arrived at Piazza dei Cavalieri, with the headquarters of the Scuola Normale di Pisa and the Church of Santo Stefano.
After crossing the center and discovering the city, you arrive at the Piazza dei Miracoli with the Tower of Pisa. To be able to visit the different places that are part of this complex therefore Tower, Cathedral, Baptistery and Camposanto there are cumulative tickets. My favorite first stop: the Camposanto. It is said that the land on which it was finally built in 1277 was sent during the Crusades directly from Mount Calvary to Pisa. Today it is the burial place of several protagonists of the history of the city. Unfortunately, during the Second World War, several of the frescoes were destroyed by Allied bombing, but one of the most beautiful is still visible: Buffalmacco's Triumph of Death. Another of the features of the Cemetery are the reused Roman sarcophagi found on the walls. In fact, the reuse of ancient sarcophagi was widespread to enhance the value of the citizen who would be buried but also to bring Pisa in its heyday as a maritime Republic closer to the great Rome and its history.
My ticket also allowed me to enter the Baptistery. A round structure characterized by a dome that for the time was very avant-garde. It is in fact the second largest baptistery in the world. And originally it was not designed in the Gothic style but it became so with the works of Nicola and Giovanni Pisano. Inside, the structure is on two floors and it is said that Galileo Galilei was baptized in the octagonal baptismal font. The pulpit of the baptistery from which the priest preached is by Nicola Pisano.
The undisputed star of my tour was the Duomo. Work on the construction began in 1064 but it was consecrated only in 1118. I would not be able to choose whether the mixture of white and green colors of the stone on the facade or the gilded coffered roof inside captured me more. The external door dates back to the 1500s from the school of Giambologna, while inside the octagonal pulpit by Giovanni Pisano is unmissable.
This time I did not climb to the top of the Tower, even though it is the symbol of the city internationally. Ironically, when Bonanno Pisano began work on what has become the most famous bell tower in the world in 1173, he had not considered the composition of the underlying ground made of sand and rubble.
My wonderful day in Pisa ended with another tour through the streets to go and take a train that took me to my next city.
---
Music - "Big Disco Ball" by Josh Woodward. Free download: joshwoodward.com/
----
Follow me on social networks and on my blog:
Art and the Cities is my personal blog and RU-vid channel about art and travel. Or better than art trips. I'm not just talking about art history but also about travel, museums, galleries, the art market, love stories, books, exhibitions and much more.
»Blog: artandthecities.com/
»Instagram: / artnthecities
See you next video!
Clelia :)
21 июл 2024
